Pedals2People to give bikes to kids

The idea of Santa riding a bicycle – and pulling a trailer filled with bicyles to giveaway – sounded pretty cool to the people at Pedals2People.

So they decided to make it a reality and organized the group’s first Christmas bicycle giveaway, Erik Solberg said.

Solberg, who’s a volunteer and board member of Pedals2People, said the organization usually has a surplus of children’s bikes in the winter.

“We know Santa, and we know someone who has a 7-foot bike trailer,” Solberg said, “and we have a big pile of bikes we are trying to give away.”

Solberg said Pedals2People is focusing this year’s giveaway on South Perry, West Central, Downtown and the East Sprague neighborhoods, and plans to deliver the bicycles on Tuesday.

Delivery will be a lot easier if requests are emailed to Pedals2People ahead of time, Solberg said.

“We will happily stop and give a kid a bike on the way,” he said, “but we are riding bikes, so we are hoping we can plan a route ahead of time and keep it somewhat centralized.”

Pedals2People teaches people to do simple bike repairs in an effort to make bicycling accessible. The organization gives bikes to children year-round, asking that recipients return the bike once they’ve outgrown it so another child can use it.

“Usually we don’t have enough bikes for everyone,” Solberg said. “But right now we have more bikes than we have kids to give them to.”